Scott Pilgrim Hailed as First Film for ‘Joystick Generation’

Edgar Wright’s big-screen adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim comic books isn’t even done yet (and not due out until next year), but Juno director Jason Reitman thinks you should be excited about it — especially if you play videogames.

For the uninitiated, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comic books trade heavily in the language of videogames. They’re rife with allusions to the aesthetics and themes of old-school games. But more importantly, the logic of games lives at the core of the story. Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera in the film, must fight and conquer his beloved Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends. The brawls play out like a series of over-the-top boss battles.

Wright seems like the perfect director for the project. His relationship to videogames can be traced all the way back to his television show Spaced, which featured frequent riffs on the gaming lifestyle. His film work (he’s two for two with the pitch-perfect Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) is steeped, and perhaps restrained, by the language of cinema.

If Reitman’s early impressions are any indication, Wright may be using Scott Pilgrim’s videogame DNA to launch movies into nutty new territory. “It is a game-changer for Edgar and the genre,” Reitman gushes. “It moves the speed of light and carries more unadulterated joy than I’ve seen in recent cinema.”